Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Putting Teachers First....

"Its just for a couple of years, we're doing it in a way that protects teaching jobs." That is Dalton McGuinty speaking on the first day of school about the wage freeze being imposed on Ontario's teachers this week.

I believe him, in that moment he is actually speaking the truth, without spin. The goal and purpose of the wage freeze is to help wrestle down the huge budget deficit and stop the monstrous debt from increasing. McGuinty has largely created both over the last nine years. This freeze saves almost half a billion dollars this year alone. Of course that's not how he is spinning it, he is calling it "PUTTING STUDENTS FIRST," but the statement at the top is really closer to the truth.

School is not about the students, it's really about the teachers. Ontario has 115,000 teachers and administrators. That represents a good chunk of voters, and does not even count auxiliary staff and families. It's a hefty voting block dispersed over the entire province. McGuinty wants to placate them, and assure them this is temporary....he hopes.

Will it work? It has worked up until now because it is a well lubricated machine, lubricated with money and there to appease the public sector unions that are in cahoots with the government. Thats not just true in Ontario, the video below from ReasonTV illustrates that the Machine behind teacher's unions is widespread throughout North America, and works in much the same way, for the benefit of teachers:

Guest Essay by Kip Hansen I get emails — lots of emails in lots of
different email accounts. Many of these emails are fundraising emails —
requests for fi...

Republic of Canada

The short-lived Republic of Canada is a little-known chapter in Canadian history. From 1837 to 1838 William Lyon Mackenzie and a small group of supporters occupied Navy Island in the Niagara River. The rebels were agitating for a government that was both responsible and representative. Although their struggle was not successful, eventually these ideals came to be represented in the government of Upper Canada and, later, the country of Canada we now know. Liberty was such an important value to this little group that they put the word on the flag, making this short, but important, episode of Canadian history something worth remembering.